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We know about amino acids, hormones, and how different foods affect our ability to build lean muscle, burn fat and stay healthy.
But if we want to achieve maximum levels of energy, recovery, health and performance, and build the most lean muscle, then we need to go down to the cellular level.
After all, our bodies are just one big mass of some 100 trillion cells all bonded together.
How well we're doing is an exact reflection of how well our cells are doing.
And they require a multitude of nutrients and biochemicals, all held in equilibrium, to ensure they can work properly, produce energy, build muscle, and keep our body going.
When these aren't properly balanced we can get headaches, brain fog, low levels of energy, muscle cramps, slower recoveries from workouts, and imbalances in hormones.
But when everything is in place, we have the most powerful you that you can be.
So let’s see how this works.
While Heart Rate measures the amount of beats per minute of your heart, and Resting Heart Rate measures the amount of beats per minute when your body is at rest (not active), Heart Rate Variability measures the natural variation in time between beats.
When we measure heart rate (how many beats per minute), we’re getting a large picture of how the heart is doing. For example, if we’re running or exercising, our heart speeds up. Then, when we’re resting, it slows down.
Before we cover what actually causes Heart disease, I want to cover something that doesn’t, or at least not in the way most people think: Cholesterol.
You’ve probably heard of the Cholesterol Hypothesis.
This hypothesis states that higher levels of cholesterol, particularly LDL Cholesterol, are associated with higher rates of Heart Disease.
To prevent heart disease then, we take drugs known as statins that lower our liver’s ability to produce cholesterol.
This hypothesis has been so deeply ingrained in our understanding of how the body works, that the idea of challenging it is almost laughable. (Even though it’s still just a hypothesis after all this time.)
While the calories you will be consuming are tailored to you, the types of foods you will be eating or not eating are very exact and there are specific reasons for each one, which we’ll cover here or in later articles.
Only Whole Foods: On this protocol we’ll only be consuming whole foods — no packaged, processed foods or processed sugars. Not because of how many calories they have, but because of how they affect our hormones, making it harder to lose fat and keep it off.
It hasn’t been understood by most people just how vital our gut health is to our heart health.
But in truth, it’s key. If our gut health is good, and our digestive tract working properly, the risk of poor heart health is much lower.
If our gut is in poor condition, however (heart burn or acid reflux often, bloating, pains, regular diarrhea, or worse), then this will, over time, lead to poor heart health.
But gut health has diminished drastically in recent times, worsening every year mainly due to our processed foods and sugars, and the 50x increase in toxins in our environment in the last 7 decades.
As I’m seeing the effects of these more and more, let's talk about: Energy drinks.
The effect that energy drinks and high levels of caffeine have on our bodies, our health, our sleep, our stress levels, our mood, our anxiety levels and our hormones is much more than most people think.
When continued over time, these can have a very significant impact on our long-term health and our body’s ability to function at optimal levels, not to mention our ability to lose fat and gain muscle.
And considering many people who drink these are in their teens or twenties, when their bodies are still developing, the damage they do there can be far worse, leading to acute or even chronic health conditions in the future.
It may seem small, but due to their prevalence and availability now, it’s very important.
So let’s dive in.
There is something called Metabolic Syndrome. And while you may or may not have heard of it, about one third of the US population has it.
And almost 90% of us are somewhere on our way to it.
As metabolic health can predict current or future health conditions and longevity, it’s pretty important to understand. So let’s define it.
The word “metabolic” means having to do with our metabolism, the whole range of chemical processes that occur within our body that keep it alive and functioning.
This would include energy creation and use, cellular creation and breakdown and even our hormones.
There are key things causing hormonal disruptions in men and women today, even in our children, affecting their overall growth.
Testosterone levels have been dropping for decades while estrogen levels have risen sharply. Levels of growth hormone and progesterone are lower and cortisol levels are too high. And hormonal imbalances are now much more than just being deficient in one or another hormone.
There are exact chemicals in the environment today which block hormones from being created, block them from being used, disrupt their normal action, or impersonate them entirely.
And they're increasing each year.
While this affects muscle-building and fat loss significantly, its effect goes far beyond this to our sleep, stress levels, overall health and how fast we age.
In this article we cover what's happening and what you can do about it.
In this article we covered the link between cholesterol and heart health or, more specifically, the lack of any link.
Now I want to go a bit further here, because there is something else that has gotten confused in this subject: saturated fats.
There is an idea that saturated fats raise cholesterol and so blood pressure, and this isn’t the case.
Your body needs saturated fats. About 25% of each of your cells are made from saturated fat. And they wouldn’t function without it.
Even more, it’s necessary if we want soft, healthy skin.
But there is another type of fat which has been confused with saturated fats, and which is very destructive: Trans Fats.
We aren’t hearing as much about them today, but they exist in many processed foods and we need to check for them as they cause inflammation in the blood vessels that does lead to high blood pressure.
So let’s see what these are and what they do.
You’ve probably heard of the Cholesterol Hypothesis.
This is a hypothesis that higher levels of cholesterol, particularly LDL Cholesterol, are associated with higher rates of Heart Disease.To prevent heart disease then, we take drugs known as statins that lower our liver’s ability to produce cholesterol.
This hypothesis has been so deeply ingrained in our understanding of how the body works, that the idea of challenging it is almost laughable. (Even though it’s still just a hypothesis after all these decades.)
As we covered in this article, we are born with specific cells, called stem cells, which are able to divide, creating new cells of any type needed in the body.
These are embryonic cells, in that they never became a specific cell type: muscle, bone, organ cell, etc.
Those cells are fixed. But these stem cells are not. They contain the full blueprints for every type of cell there is.
But… we only have so many of them, and they can each only divide so many times.
So when we injure our cells, accidentally, through workouts, or just through the normal hammer and pound activities of the day, these stem cells divide to create new cells to replace the old injured cells, or to create new muscle cells to grow muscle.
When we look at the fact of aging, or getting older, we often measure it in two ways:
The number of years we’ve been on this earth, chronologically.
And the amount of decay that’s set in: fatigue, lower energy, poor fitness levels, poor sleep, loss of muscle, worsening vision and hearing, digestive problems, memory loss, etc.
But, while we’ve come to see the second as the inevitable result of the first, it’s actually not. It’s the result of getting biologically older, accelerated aging before our time.
We don’t realize this because our view is obviously based on what we’ve seen for decades now. And what we’ve seen is not good.
But this isn’t a natural situation. It’s a created situation.